Betrayal In The Heart Of The King
by TakeMeToGlasgow
Summary: Set at the time that Arthur is king, new character called Florence, but other than that all other characters are the same, I do not own Merlin.
1. They Started As Friends

Betrayal In The Heart Of The King.

'ARTHUR' shouted Merlin, as he spotted Arthur at the end of the corridor. 'What _Mer_lin' he sneered, then he spotted her. 'I wanted to introduce you to Florence, she's Gaius' new assistant' Merlin said happily.

'Hello Sire'

'Call me Arthur, well spend a few hours around Merlin and it should catch on' Arthur glared in Merlin's direction.

'Please si-Arthur call me Flo, no-one calls me Florence anymore' she said with a smile.

With that Arthur left with a small nod, as he turned the corner he heard Merlin shout something about a tour of the castle, what a clot pole. 'King Arthur' mumbled Sir Leon 'your presence is needed in the dungeons'. 'You look shattered Leon, what's up?', 'Sorcerer' is all Leon could splutter before he collapsed to the ground.

As Arthur raced to Gaius' chambers with Sir Leon in his arms, Florence was brushing her golden locks with the brush her mother gave her, before she died. Oh how Florence wished her mother was still here. Tears filled her dark, blue eyes and she blinked them back behind her long eyelashes, she started to sing, an ancient song her mother had taught her when she was little,

cum sidera caeli lucere super vos  
lucem librari cum nocte consumant vos,  
diligere mundum  
arripuerit ad lucem  
nox et beata libera.

Her voice was that of an angels, but she never sang in front of anyone, she was too scared to. She repeated the song, remembering how her mother used to sing her to sleep, when Arthur rushed through the door, holding a man in his arms. 'Oh god, oh god, Florence, where the hell is Gaius?! Where the hell is Merlin?' he cried. 'I, err I don't know sire, I think they went out to pick herbs sire' she stammered. Arthur sighed and went back into Gaius' chambers and placed the man on the table.

'Who is that sire?'

'Sir Leon'

'Wh-hat happened to him sire?'

'A sorcerer is what bloody happened'.

Florence gulped, she always knew she was different, but she didn't know how different until a few years ago. She was walking along one of the short cuts to the fields from her house, when a bandit, a mad, evil bandit came flying out of no-where, she froze, unable to do anything, she thought he was going to kill her. That's when she felt the power flood through her like a river. The last thing that bandit ever saw was the golden fire within a young girl's eyes.

She knew she could tell no-one, and she never would. 'That's terrible sire, I'll go and get Gaius sire' she muttered and rushed out the door before Arthur could reply. She roamed the corridors, and quite frankly she was lost, she had only been here a few days and still didn't know where she was going. She closed her eyes trying to think where Gaius could be when she walked into something, she saw in front of her a beautiful dark skinned woman, in the nicest frock she had ever seen.

'Err.. do you know where Gaius is?' she asked

'Who are you?' the woman questioned,

'Oh, sorry, I'm Florence, but everyone calls me Flo' she said with a smile, 'who are you?'

'I' said the woman with a little smirk 'am Guinevere'

'Oh!' gasped Florence 'i-i'm sorry! I didn't know my lady!'

'Honestly it's fine, and yes I know where Gaius is, he's in the courtyard, do you know him?'

'Yes, I'm his new assistant ' Florence smiled 'Sir Leon's fallen ill I've been sent to find him'

'Oh' groaned Gwen 'I'll come with you'.

They walked together to the courtyard and found Gaius, he was there with Merlin, and he smiled when he saw Florence coming. Gwen and Gaius and a quick conversation and they all quickly rushed back to Gaius' chambers.

Gaius rushed to Sir Leon's side. 'What happened sire?' asked Gaius, Arthur simply replied with 'sorcery'. 'Ah' muttered Gaius 'if I could please work in peace sire, I will try my best to cure him'. 'Of course' said Arthur 'come on Gwen' and with one last fleeting look at Florence he left with Gwen. 'Er- Florence?' asked Gaius 'can you go and fetch some water?' she nodded and walked out into the town to fetch some water, she pumped the water into the bucket and quickly returned , she could tell Leon meant a lot to everyone. She opened the door and walked in on Merlin muttering, his hand placed over Leons heart 'sanare animam  
qui detracta est sanare hominem hunc ipse enim teritur'. She knew exactly what was happening, even more so when she seen the horrified look on Gaius' face. 'FLORENCE' he half shouted, half moaned. Merlin looked up from Sir Leon, at the same time Leon groaned and rolled over, Merlin looked at Florence, his eyes were pleading, she understood. 'Merlin' she cried and run up and hugged him, his expression said it all, he was so confused, Florence explained it all, 'Me too' she whispered and made one of the books fly around his head.

Merlin was shocked, but so pleased at the same time, 'I-I- Florence!' he beamed. 'Seems we can both keep secrets magic boy' she smirked and they both laughed. 'Will Leon be okay?' asked Florence, 'Yep, he should be' said Merlin happily, 'I'll stay with him' muttered Florence, 'you should tell Arthur that Leon's going to be okay'. With that Merlin left and Florence sat herself at the bedside of Sir Leon. Gaius raised his eye-brow but said no more about what he had just witnessed.

It had been a few day's since Leon had fallen ill and Florence's newest task as Gaius' assistant was to look after Sir Leon, and be by his side as much as possible, it was a boring job but Sir Leon did have many visitors, Arthur visited quite a few times, and Florence had started to become comfortable with the king, he was actually quite nice and it was funny hearing Arthur and Merlin's conversations, her favourite visitor was Gwen, she was really kind and had actually offered Florence a job as her maidservant, which of course she accepted as long as it was after Leon had recovered. It was late afternoon when Florence heard a groan from Leon, she went over next to his bed and held his hand (well it felt like the right thing to do), Leon's eyes fluttered open and a blurred image of a beautiful woman came into view, 'ugh' he whispered 'am I in heaven?'. Florence giggled, 'of course not, sir, you're in Gaius' chambers'.


	2. I Took No Time With The Fall

Part Two,

Song for this chapter;** The Other Side.**

Merlin rushed into the room, he'd heard the news. 'Leon, what happened exactly?' he asked quickly, 'I'm fine Merlin, thanks for asking' Leon said sarcastically, 'I don't really know, I went down to the dungeons with the sorcerer me and Gwaine caught, and when I came back up I felt terrible..'. 'The sorcerer probably cursed you sir' Florence said politely, she looked up and saw Merlin glaring at her, she supposed he was supposed to act stupid in these situations.

'_Mer_lin' shouted a voice from down the hall, and they all knew what it meant. Merlin sighed and walked to the door, 'I suppose I'll be off then' he groaned and hurried out the door. 'You need rest sir' Florence said, and Leon agreed with no complaint, he rested his head on the pillow and fell asleep almost immediately. Florence was cleaning pots in the corner when Leon awoke with a cry. 'MORGANA' he screamed 'SHES COMING'. Wide eyed and sweating he looked over to see Florence with a confused yet terrified look on her face.

'Sir, it was just a dream' said Florence, 'who is this Morgana anyway?' Sir Leon sat up and took a deep breath, 'This might take a while' he said. Morgana, Florence hated her, even if she had only heard the story of what she had done, she was purely evil. They sat in silence for a while after Leon had finished his story, Florence broke the silence, 'sir, I am sure it was just a dream, there is no need to worry, if the dreams continue Gaius can give you something to stop them' she said with a smile. Leon nodded, and stood up with a wobble, 'Er sir are you sure you'll be okay waking' Florence questioned, 'I'll be fine, I just need to go and see Arthur' he said, and added after seeing Florence's raised eyebrow, 'just to tell him I'm okay'.

Leon got to Arthurs chambers followed by Florence, who had insisted on coming with him, "_just in case_". He knocked on the door and heard a muffled 'Come in'. They walked in to find Merlin hitting Arthur round the head with a pillow, it seemed they had been fighting, again. 'Leon!' exclaimed Arthur after a sharp glare at Merlin, who grinned. Leon smiled and Arthur asked 'what happened? Was it the sorcerer?', 'I believe so sire' muttered Leon.

'Then I will have to do something I wish I didn't have to do, Leon set the execution for sundown'. Florence and Merlin looked at each other , they knew there would be consequences to his actions. Leon hesitated for a second then nodded and left. 'Okay' thought Florence 'this is awkward'.. 'Erm I'll be off now' she muttered 'Sire, Merlin'. 'Wait Florence, now Leon is well, you are officially Guinevere's maidservant' Arthur said, quite pompously. She nodded and went off to Gwen's chambers.

'Hello?' Florence said as she walked into Gwen's chambers. 'FLORENCE' smiled Gwen, 'is Leon okay?', 'Yeah he's fine' Florence smiled 'so I suppose I'm your maidservant now'. She and Gwen talked for ages, about anything and everything until they got onto the subject Florence dreaded most , 'So..' said Gwen with a twinkle in her eyes 'did you have a man back at home?' No one knew of Florence's past and she couldn't tell them. 'E-er' she stuttered going red, 'no'. Gwen smiled 'any men here?' she said with a wink. Florence rolled her eyes and laughed. Sir Gwaine walked through the door, 'Gwen, your presence is needed outside, the execution is about to start'. Gwen nodded and walked outside with Florence, Gwen saw Florence walk over to Gaius and Merlin as she walked over to Arthur.

'We are gathered here today for the execution of Kendra Evans, a sorcerer, who cursed Sir Leon. I regret having to do this, but it must be done.' Arthur said sadly. Florence wasn't ready for this, she had forgotten completely about this, and wasn't ready to see a fellow sorcerer die. Arthur raised his hand and slowly let it fall, Florence turned away as she felt the tears tumble down her face. She felt an arm around her shoulder and looked up to see Merlin who also had tears in his eyes. 'Let us have a feast, tonight. To celebrate Sir Leon's renewed health' said Arthur and with that the crowd dispatched muttering excitedly about the feast, and what had just happened.

Florence couldn't move she was too upset, it could have been her there, or worse Merlin. 'Come on' whispered Merlin who guided me back to Gaius' chambers. We had to get ready for the feast, Florence picked up one of her dresses from home, it was beautiful, too beautiful for a servant. She sighed, she wished she could wear it. It had an ice blue satin bodice with floating sleeves, and a simple midnight blue skirt. She stroked the fabric, tears welling in her eyes, oh how she missed home. 'Are you okay?' questioned Merlin, Florence's head shot up, 'oh erm, I'm fine' Florence said. 'That's a beautiful dress' Merlin said, but it was more like a question. She needed to tell someone, she could trust Merlin. 'I'm not who you think I am' she said 'I am Princess Florence of Alzar.' Her voice had gone to less than a whisper, she looked up and saw Merlin's eyes widen. 'Why?' he said, and she knew what he meant, 'My father found out about my magic, and knew if anyone else found out there would be an uprising, the kingdom has been angry for a while that magic is banned, and if they found out the kings daughter had magic they would surely rebel.' She said, 'W-we fake-ed m-my death and my father told me to go to Camelot where he knew I would be safe as long as no-one knew of my magic. No one knows me here because my kingdom is far away on the other side of Bayard's kingdom.' She finished and started crying.

Merlin comforted her and promised he would tell no-one, 'You should wear the dress' he said as he was in the doorway, 'just say your mother gave it to you before you left'. Florence looked at the dress, unsure what to do. She quickly slipped into the dress and let her hair fall down from her bun. She was very self conscious and walked into the celebration with her head down. She quickly went into the corner of the room, and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, unfortunately it didn't work. Gwaine walked over to her and she felt her face going red. 'Hello sweetie pie' he said with a wink 'You're gwen's maidservant aren't you?' , 'Yes' Florence said 'You're Sir Gwaine'. 'Now we've got names settled, do you fancy a dance?' he asked with a smile. Florence nodded and tried not to grin too much. They danced, spinning round, laughing and chatting until Arthur said 'A toast, to Sir Leon' and everyone raised their glasses. A hand tapped Florence on the shoulder and she whirled around. She smiled when she saw who it was , 'Would you do me the honours of dancing with me my lady' Leon smiled, 'Of course, it would be an honour' she smirked. They danced until Florence felt she would collapse. She gave Leon a hug and looked up to see the King glaring at her, an odd look in his eyes.

Please review. Part three should be up soon, hopefully by Wednesday.


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